my predictions for the job board industry for the coming year:

Here’s what 2009 has in store for job boards - vast change.

• Employers are scaling back their use of job boards. They aren’t hiring.
• Lots of HR managers will lose their jobs. But, sometimes that helps down the road when they are rehired in new companies, we gain a new customer.
• Many executive recruiters will throw in the towel and take jobs in less lucrative and less cyclical industries.
• Many job boards will shut down or sell for pocket change. Others will survive but only exist because it doesn’t cost anything to keep the website up. These will land customers every once in a while when a new sucker comes along but will never again compete in their niches. They will mostly act as affiliate sites for the major boards and land mines for employers.

But there’s nothing new here -- it’s just the same thing that happened in the last recession we weathered. So, what’s different this time? Read the rest here.